Can Anyone Learn Music

1. Can Anyone Learn Musical
2. Can Anyone Learn Music Notes

Today, the Internet abounds with tons of free online tutorials on how to play drums. So why would you be interested in private, one-on-one lessons? If you choose private drum lessons, you not only have to pay a teacher, but also to attend every single lesson. Although these two things may determine you to opt for a free online drum course, taking private lessons is actually the one thing you can’t ignore if you’re serious about.Why?

Jul 03, 2011  Best Answer: The other answers do well with selecting a guitar. I will give you my findings on: Can anyone learn? More people quit playing in their first year, than continue. It is usually because they do not have adequate help or they expect to be able to play harder music right away. Can ANYONE Learn How to Sing? (My 6 Year Singing Transformation) Tags guitar lessons, guitar lessons for beginners, guitar lessons for kids, guitar lessons near me, Learn, piano lessons, piano lessons for kids, piano lessons near me, sing, Singing, singing coach, singing lessons, singing lessons online, transformation, Year.

Well, simply because learning how to play drums correctly is more difficult than it seems. Chances are you’ll misinterpret something or develop a bad habit you may not even be aware of. Thus, to learn drums correctly, it’s imperative to correctly learn everything you need to know about playing the drums, without necessarily limiting yourself. This is where a qualified teacher can step in. Private Drum Lessons: Are They for Everyone?The unfortunate truth is that some drummers make little progress after years of studying drums on their own.

And some of them are playing far below their potential. They’ve never had a qualified teacher to explain to them how to play with proper technique or how to read drum music – both necessary skills to help you elevate your skills as a drummer.Max Weinberg, Dave Weckl, and Neil Peart – three top-notch drummers who have taken private lessons well into their professional years -prove that drummers of all levels should always be working to improve their skills! Private lessons are a good choice because you get one-one-one guidance from a professional who can show you exactly what you need to work on. Since everyone learns (and teaches!) differently, finding the right teacher for you is key. Your teacher should be experienced and qualified but also know how to communicate, explain techniques well, and be patient.

With a supportive teacher on your side, you’ll not only learn drums correctly, but also gain confidence, which is so important in achieving your goals! Learn to RelaxFeet, hands, and passion – you may think that this is all you need to play drums like a pro. However, no matter what your goals in drumming are, you have to learn drums the right way if you want to make them sound alive.

Learning proper foot and hand techniques is a key element that will dictate your success as a drummer. A good drum teacher can show you these techniques, as well as teach you how to relax while playing the drum set. Relaxation is critical because it can help you avoid many problems, such as getting out of sync with your band or speeding up without noticing.

When Feet and Hands Don’t Want to Work TogetherMany newbies have this problem. Could it be because most of them focus on their hands and ignore their feet when they first start to learn drums? You can easily avoid this issue if you work with a qualified teacher, who can identify where you’re stumbling, and assign you specific exercises that can help you improve.Additionally, your teacher can teach you specific tips and tricks, such as playing the bass drum with your right heel up and the ball of your foot on the foot board, while lifting and lowering your leg when you need to get more power.

If you intend to play soft music like jazz, your teacher may advise you to play with your right heel down and your foot flat on the pedal, pivoting from the ankle.For perfect coordination, you need to also improve your hand technique. According to the best teachers, the only way to learn drums correctly is to know the basics very well. A solid foundation is the key to becoming a true professional. Practice, Practice, and Practice AgainMany newbies are confident that they can learn how to play drums by themselves.

However, most of them fail because they don’t set a regular practice schedule. Even if you create such a schedule, daily tasks can easily get in the way.On the other hand, if you’re paying for your drum lessons, you’ll most probably do everything you can to attend all of them.

Establishing a regular practice schedule is very important because it gives you the chance to learn exciting things and gain new skills, which can keep you interested and motivated. Further, a consistent drum practice routine will help you stay in great drumming shape.Finally, a drum teacher can show you how to choose the best drum sticks, how to improve your posture and balance, how to practice at home without annoying your family and neighbors, how to continue improving your hand and foot techniques, and many other things. Above all these, a teacher can provide encouragement and support when you’re struggling.Simply put, working with a qualified teacher to learn drums is one of the best decisions you can make. Not only can a professional direct you toward the best learning methods, but he or she can also help you achieve your musical goals without facing the hardships of self-learning.

(NEWER POSTS ARE BELOW THIS ONE)I keep this very old post up top because, as one of the commenters says, it looks at the BIG picture of how we learn to play. You’ll find practical tips here as well as exercises, resources, and the philosophy behind the.Whether you’ve been playing the piano for years or are just getting started, what you think you know may be holding you back.Here are the common fallacies we’ll debunk:(Each topic is a clickable link.)The conversation will touch on all styles of music–-pop, jazz, classical, etc.So let’s get started. Just ahead: fresh thinking about the piano, and how we learn to play. MYTH #1 “It all starts with learning to read music.”For many, this is a given. Without sheet music, after all, how does a beginner know what notes to play?But others see things differently.

Among the growing number of programs that delay the introduction of reading is the highly regarded Suzuki Method, as well as the more recent Music Moves for Piano and Simply Music. (Not to mention countless independent teachers, websites, and so on.)So what’s going on here? Are things changing, or are the rest of us just catching up to what the best pianists and teachers have always known?To get a handle on all this, let’s start by looking at some disadvantages of the reading-first approach. How not to enjoy the pianoSay you’re a beginner studying on your own, using a method book that teaches you to read music from the very start.If you think about it, that book is asking a lot of you. With your eyes focused on a page filled with mysterious dots and lines, you’re being asked to curve your fingers, relax your wrist—and all this, remember, while also having to keep track of where C, D, E, and so on, are located on the keyboard.Oh–and don’t forget to count out loud!Having to do so much at once, leaves little opportunity for you to use your musical instincts to simply play.You know–to express yourself.

To make music.And emphasizing reading at this early stage shortchanges you in another, equally important way. And to understand what that is, let’s look at some musical success stories. How the best musicians learnIf you read about the formative years of the great performers and composers, one fact that stands out is how many of them were aural learners.

For Mozart, Tchaikovsky, Prokofiev, and countless others right up to today’s jazz and pop icons, the focus from the start was on playing by ear and improvising.For example, here’s an excerpt from the biography of Richard Rodgers (of Rodgers and Hammerstein) by David Ewen.When he was four he could piece together on the piano bits of melodies, using two fingers.By the time he was six, Dick played the piano by ear with two hands. He disliked trying to read music from the printed page.

Can Anyone Learn Musical

Instead, he would spend hours either improvising melodies or trying to perform the songs he had heard his parents sing and play.Like other musical greats, Rodgers’ introduction to the piano had much in common with how we learn to speak: talk (play) first, read later.We’ll look at similar accounts in just a bit, and put these insights to use. But first, we need to clarify a key point. How your ear fits into the pictureCan you carry a tune? Most people can sing to some extent, and let’s be clear about what that means: when you hear a melody for the first time, you can sing it. (As much of it as you can remember, anyway.)In other words, you can “play” your vocal cords by ear.Now that’s an unusual way to describe singing, but it may help you to understand how natural it can be to play an instrument when your ear is in control.OK, now contrast that to what happens at the piano in the reading-first approach. You are shown a symbol on a page. You are taught that it tells you to put your finger on middle C.

You play the note.But here’s the strange part: your ear never had a thing to do with it.In other words, teachers and students usually bypass the ear. Instead of encouraging an organic process in which your ear gradually learns to guide your finger to the note, the standard approach has been to use reading as a shortcut, a crib sheet, of sorts.Are you beginning to understand the drawbacks of this approach? How it leads to a way of playing that’s quite different from the experience of those accomplished musicians we were talking about?If so, it’s time to look at alternatives. Getting practicalA word to the beginner: if you can possibly study with a teacher, now’s the time to do it. After all, you’re building the foundation, and you want to do that well.If you choose to work with videos or other self-instructional materials instead, then by all means, find ones that show you not only what notes to play, but how to play them.

Videos that cover basic technique, in other words.(And check out the forums at. You’ll find a supportive community of students, professionals, teachers, tuners and so forth discussing every piano-related topic imaginable.)If you do decide to study privately, you now have a better idea what to ask a prospective teacher. For one thing, at the first lessons, will he or she focus on playing rather than reading?But maybe you’re wondering how that’s even possible.

Maybe you’re asking the question we raised earlier: Without sheet music, how does a beginner know what notes to play?One solution is to study with someone who has a repertoire of simple pieces he or she teaches by rote, chord, and pattern.Let’s break that down.Rote learning: involves simple repetition without any true understanding.Chord approach: better, because it teaches you about the basic structure of music. (If you don’t know what a chord is, go to your piano and play C, E, and G. That’s a C chord.)As to pattern, think of it this way. Music is repetitive, recycling the same elements over and over, in different ways.For example, a piece might start with a C chord, played one note at a time (C, E, then G), in a certain rhythm.Next, that same pattern, including the rhythm, might repeat on an F chord (F, A, C).

Then again, on a G chord (G, B, D).So by knowing a few chords, and grabbing on to the rhythm by ear, you can learn to play simple music without ever having to read it. Chords and Lead sheetsIn a sense, chords are the “words” that make up the language we call music. (It’s as true for Beethoven as it is for the Beatles). Which is why a little chord savvy, which you can easily pick up, can help you get off to a great start at the piano.But the good news about chords doesn’t stop there.

Though learning to read standard notation takes time, there’s a way to read and write chords that you can grasp immediately: lead sheets.12.11.13 UPDATE. In the following section, I refer to wikifonia.org. That site has been unavailable for weeks, so it may be discontinued. The good news is that there's now an better source for free chord charts: Ultimate-Guitar.com. It has everything Wikifonia did, except that the melodies are not written out-but you don't need to see the melody to play an accompaniment. And Ultimate-Guitar has a much bigger selection of songs than Wikifonia did. Like Wikifonia, Ultimate-Guitar will also transpose (change keys) for you.Go to wikifonia.org and enter the name of a song you like.

When you get to the page for that song, here’s what you’ll see: the melody written in standard notation (we’re not concerned with that), the lyrics, and the chord symbols, which are the big letters at the top of the staff, sometimes followed by a flat, sharp, number, or abbreviation.Lead sheets can be used in all sorts of interesting ways (we’ll talk about one shortly). And unlike standard notation and its typical use as a crutch for beginners, lead sheets tend to nurture the ear.

Because they encourage improvising, jamming with friends, singing, and songwriting–just the sorts of activities that develop your ear rather than neglect it.A collection of lead sheets is called a fake book. And a great one for beginners is Your First Fake Book, published by Hal Leonard.The advantages of learning to accompanyIf chords are a great starting point for beginners, one way to begin using them is to back up your own singing. For the student, accompaniments have several advantages over piano solos.For one thing, because you sing the melody rather than play it, learning to accompany is relatively easy. Often there’s not much more to it than repeating a chord in a steady rhythm with your right hand, while your left hand holds down a single note (the root of the chord–the note that gives the chord its name, like C, for a C chord). Your lead sheet will tell you what chords to play.If you’re a beginner, the ease of this style of playing allows you to focus on things like technique, rhythmic flow, pedaling, and so on.And don’t worry, if playing and singing at the same time sounds difficult, you can always add the singing later.

Or have a friend do it.After just a few weeks or months of lessons, a complete beginner can master basic accompaniments for 3-chord songs like Hey Jude, Imagine, or Amazing Grace. In contrast, learning to play the same songs convincingly as piano solos would take much, much longer.Not to mention the fact that songs are meant to be sung!(If all the above is whetting your appetite, see, an online course that teaches you to accompany yourself in pop, rock, blues, and folk styles.) Chords for the classically-mindedBut chords aren’t just for pop players. The classical-sounding pieces in beginners’ methods are sometimes composed entirely, or almost entirely, of chord tones. Often they use broken chords, meaning the notes are played one at a time, as in the illustration we looked at earlier for learning by pattern.Pieces like these are easy to learn without reading, which makes them exactly the sort of repertoire teachers can use with students in the early stages.But there’s a lesson here for advanced players and readers, too.

When you learn a new piece by grasping its chords, you can memorize it quickly and securely. Then, since you’re not distracted by having to read, you have the freedom to focus on technique and expression.Some favorite intermediate pieces that are largely chord-based are Fur Elise (beginning section only), Angels’ Voices by Burgmuller, and Bach’s Prelude Number 1 from “The Well-Tempered Clavier” (Book 1).With music like this, you can study the score, label the chords, and memorize the piece before you ever begin to practice it. Depending on your abilities, you could also record yourself as you read the piece at the piano very slowly, and then learn it by ear.But maybe you’d like to take an occasional break from playing other people’s music, and begin to play your own. It might be easier than you think. ImprovisingThink about how we learn to speak. We pick up a few words (by ear), and immediately begin to use them in our own way, stringing together various combinations to create phrases, and later, sentences. In other words, we improvise.Even after we’ve learned to read and write, improvising (speaking) continues to be at the heart of how we use language.Unfortunately, when it comes to music, we often equate improvising with jazz.

And that makes us think of it as a terribly complex skill, certainly not within the reach of beginners.But it doesn’t have to be that way. Your first improvisationsTry this: in the octave below middle C, play a C chord with your left hand, but leave out the E. That’s your accompaniment.With your right hand roaming just three notes–C, D, and E–see how much interest you can create. Long notes, short notes, silence–mix them up for maximum effect.Re-play the left hand part every now and then to renew its sound.Most of all, don’t stop for anything you might consider to be a “mistake.” Just keep the music flowing, because continuity is essential to improvising–its only rule, you might say.Gradually, expand your vocabulary to include G, then A. That gives you the full pentatonic scale, one of the improviser’s favorite resources. (It’s probably best to save F and B for later as they’re likely to introduce more dissonance.)You might also try switching to an A chord with your left hand, which will instantly give your music a darker (minor) flavor.

Then switch back to C.Then try an F chord, and then others, too.As you get more comfortable, you can begin to play the left hand part in a well-defined rhythm, perhaps playing it every beat, every two beats, or every 4 beats.Or, try a simple waltz feel, with the left hand playing every three beats. Or, on the first and third beats.While still keeping a 3-beat groove, another possibility is to break up the two-note chord, playing the lower note on the first beat, and the upper note on the second, continuing to hold it on the third. (Hold the lower note down for all three beats.)For those of you who can read music a bit, a great resource is the Pattern Play series of books by Akiko and Forrest Kinney, published by Frederick Harris.Beginning with the simplest left hand patterns and right hand scales, the lessons gradually help you to improvise in a variety of styles including New Age, classical, blues, jazz, and so on. (You can hear me improvise on the first Pattern Play “piece”.)And here’s another way to get started creating (or at least, co-creating) your own music. Remember those piano accompaniments we were talking about? Well, they can be great vehicles for learning to improvise.As I’ve said, with piano/vocal arrangements, you’re likely to be playing the chords with your right hand. And one way to get creative is to play broken rather than block chords, inventing patterns and rhythms as you go.

Jamming on the chords of a song is what jazz is all about.As you learn to improvise, you’ll eventually want to do more than just stick to the “safest” notes (chord members, for example). You’ll want to be able to range farther afield and play precisely what you hear or imagine. And for that, you need “big ears.” Ear TrainingRemember how I said that when you sing, you’re “playing” your voice by ear? Well, one way to start transferring this ability to the piano, is to jump right in and practice with simple melodies like Are You Sleeping and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.These tunes, as well as other childrens’ songs, folk songs, and many Christmas carols, use only the notes of the major scale (do re mi fa so la ti do). That makes them good choices to start with because instead of twelve tones to choose from, you have only seven.At first, it’s trial and error.

But if you keep doing it–and I mean if you play by ear a lot, day after day–you start getting quicker and more confident. (As we saw with the young Richard Rodgers.)As your ear becomes more practiced, you begin to notice that one note has a special feel or quality to it: it’s at rest.For example, if you play a melody in the key of C (in other words, use the notes of C scale), you’ll notice that, C, unlike the other six notes in the scale, doesn’t “need” to resolve to any other tone. It’s tension-free.We call this note the keynote or do (as in do re mi). Since the keynote feels like home, it’s almost always the last note of a tune.

And learning to hear how other tones gravitate towards the keynote is an important part of being able to play by ear.The ability to recognize tones in this way is called relative pitch. If you have perfect pitch, on the other hand, you can recognize tones without needing to compare them to others. That’s why it’s also called absolute pitch. And contrary to popular belief, it’s possible to develop absolute pitch as an adult, at least to some extent.

Playing songs by earHere’s Paul Shaffer, long-time keyboardist and bandleader for David Letterman, talking about his musical beginnings (as quoted in John Novellos’s Contemporary Keyboardist). Right away I started playing by ear. First I played the songs I heard that had only three chords; once I knew the three chords, I could play a lot of songs. Bruce SiegelKevin, thanks for the compliment. But I have to be honest about this.

While learning the intervals is useful (and my course begins with a brief introduction to them), what you’re saying doesn’t make sense. If your goal is learning to play the piano, then spending 6 months mastering the intervals before you even start playing is crazy!

You should be playing music virtually from the first day, acquiring the piano technique and theory you need as you go along.Sorry if that sounds blunt, but this is the true message of my article, and the philosophy on which my course is based.Does this make sense to you? Bruce SiegelBianka, I know you’re advertising your course here, but since you’ve asked me a question, I’ll answer honestly.I just looked at your videos and I see something important that’s missing—and it has nothing to do with reading music. Your videos show only your fingers. But we don’t play the piano primarily with our fingers—we play with our arms and our entire body. Just as we don’t run with our toes—we run with our legs! This may seem like a small point.

But it’s essential, from the start, for a beginner to form habits based on using arm-weight. I demonstrate this, and in this article, in the section entitled:.Without this understanding, the beginning player is forming bad habits that become harder to fix the longer he keeps reinforcing them.This is one of the key deficiencies I see in most online courses—one that I’ve been passionate about rectifying in my own.

Almost every lesson in my course not only teaches you what notes to play, but helps you develop a relaxed, efficient, piano technique. TommyHowdy Bruce,I know it’s years later from when you wrote this article.

However, I am a musician of many instruments. I mainly play the drums.

Can Anyone Learn Music Notes

I have learned many techniques for drumming in both school and on my personal time. I even started playing metal with blast beats and all that good fun crazy speed in great timing. I have recently started playing piano in college and I must admit I have picked up on it at a very fast pace. I have my disputes on the way they teach piano in those types of classes. I have read and seriously appreciate the article you wrote.

I will apply this to my learning. If you have any other suggestions or tips I would appreciate it greatly if you can e-mail me or reply back on this page. I just hope I can find the page again. Thank you very much. HelenWould you advocate this approach for children just beginning piano?I have a daughter just turning 8 who got a keyboard for Christmas but we also have a piano, and am struggling with whether best to enrol her for classical piano lessons, since think may well then end up better pianist, with more technical skills and better able to read music and play anything may want to play later in life from music. Or whether to enrol her with Rockademy for keyboard /piano lessons who I think teach more like you advocate – (using trinity rock and pop exams ) and more through rock/ pop music.

Your approach makes sense and I know she would love to jam along to pop songs – maybe even with dad who is a rock guitarist self taught by ear. She would also enjoy being creative – making up her own songs. However I do not want to compromise her ultimate skills by going down this route rather than more usual more classical route through peripatetic music service in schools. Also I suppose want her to be able to play a range of songs, not just rock/pop.

Thank you,Helen. Bruce SiegelHelen, thanks for the great question! Yes—it’s a challenge to find just the right approach and the right teacher.

And I love that you’re giving the matter the thought and care it deserves.A proper answer would take hours to write. So I’ll just make two main points.You say: “I do not want to compromise her ultimate skills by going down this route.”But here’s the thing: the main message of the first part of my post is simply that reading is not the ideal starting place. As I see it, to try to teach a child to read music before she knows the thrill of PLAYING—now there’s the compromise.

As demonstrated by some of the examples I give, it’s a simple fact that the finest musicians generally begin by playing by ear.Please understand that the issue here is not classical vs pop. There are classically-oriented teachers who understand the value of playing before reading, thought they are not necessarily the easiest to find.Secondly, I would suggest that you check in with your daughter. Tell her what’s going through your mind. Ideally, have her sit in on a lesson or class with some teachers you have in mind, or at the Rockacademy. Let her be your ally as you figure all this out. She’ll love you for it. (By the way, when I teach kids, I teach their parents too—at least in the beginning stages.

By learning to play these simple songs and pieces, moms and dads become ideal coaches at home. So the student has guidance all week long, rather than just on lesson day.)This I know for sure: what matters most is her passionate involvement. With that, anything is possible, and she’ll make course corrections as she goes.I hope this helps a bit!

Bruce SiegelHi Preston,Thanks for asking! I’m also sending you a private email, in case you don’t see this reply.To answer your questions: you get started on the course by subscribing to it.As to how long it takes, that’s truly impossible to answer. Some people get everything they need from the course in weeks or days, while others keep returning to it over the years. Note that my picks up from where the first leaves off. I wish I could be more specific.Feel free to ask any other questions here, or by responding to my email.–Bruce.